By Janika Ter Ellen
A large number of up-and-coming designers are showing at this year's Fashion Week. These designers are referred to as "the new gen", or new generation.
They're all trying to make it in a tough local and international market, but despite the advantage from showing at Fashion Week, it’s not easy.
Derryn Schmidt is one up-and-coming Kiwi designer who works from her garage who knows just how hard it can be.
“Some days I'm just like, ‘I've had enough’, but yeah, the next garment comes out, and it's amazing, or I get smiles from my kids and it's amazing,” she says.
With no separation of life and work, her story is typical of young designers.
“I think ‘I haven't heard from Derryn in like a week, two weeks or a month’, and I actually understand now why she doesn't - she just has no time,” says her mother Denise Reisima.
This is her first solo show at fashion week, but with fewer buyers coming to New Zealand in a struggling global market, capturing attention is tough.
Madeleine Allman is a buyer for luxury fashion site MyWardrobe looking for individual designs, but she will only deal with Kiwi designers guaranteed to fill orders with a detailed plan for expansion.
“All of this is quite a cost, so you have to be able to write this strategy in development so you aren't left with tens of thousand of dollars in debt because you've gone too fast,” she says.
Kiwi designer Trelise Cooper agrees, saying many young designers don't spending enough time on the business of fashion.
“It's all very well doing garments, but unless you sell you don't have a business and it is about having that dream - in order to have that you need to sell,” she says.
Ms Cooper says up-and-comers must make their plan early in order to make it in today's market.
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